Dan Davis's Search for a Door into Summer

Dan Davis moves from heartbreak and a planned escape toward a future he chooses to build, then discovers that his return to the past can bring him back to the people he loves.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

Winter in the Heart

Winter in the Heart The failed search Dan Davis enters a bar with Petronius the Arbiter, feeling that his life has turned cold despite his youth and relative security. The cat’s repeated search for a door into summer gives language to Dan’s own longing for a life beyond the loss he cannot yet bear. Escape imagined An advertisement for the Long Sleep turns that longing into a practical possibility. Dan considers sleeping until Belle Darkin is old or gone, treating time itself as a way to escape heartbreak and revenge.

An Abandoned Escape

An Abandoned Escape A decision under review After arranging cold sleep for himself and his cat, Dan is challenged by a doctor who suspects that alcohol has distorted his judgment. Sobered and rested, he begins to ask whether sleep is adventure or simply a way to hide from the damage Belle and Miles Gentry have done. Choosing to stay Dan decides to confront Miles before entering the sanctuary. The decision briefly restores agency: instead of erasing his troubles, he will discover what happened and fight for his rights.

The Long Sleep

The Long Sleep A stolen choice Miles Gentry and Belle Darkin drug Dan and use his vulnerable, suggestible state to reverse his decision. They alter the insurance documents and deliver him to a sanctuary, turning the sleep he had considered into an imprisonment imposed by people he trusted. Waking into loss Dan wakes thirty years later with clear recollection but muted emotional response. He has survived, yet his money is gone, his original life has vanished, and he initially believes that Pete was left behind to die.

Learning the New Present

Learning the New Present Starting with nothing Dan leaves the sanctuary without his investments and accepts a modest loan in place of the unused custodial time. He finds work crushing surplus cars, a job that gives him food and shelter but makes plain how far the world has moved beyond his old expertise. Rebuilding competence He studies modern engineering, learns new customs, and gradually earns a place at Hired Girl, Inc. The future is disorienting, but it also offers tools, machines, and possibilities that renew his appetite for invention.

Finding the Chosen Future

Finding the Chosen Future A return with purpose After using Twitchell's temporal displacement device, Dan returns to 1970, recovers Pete, and makes a new future possible through invention and trust. He arranges for Ricky to join him after her own sleep, replacing an accidental abandonment with a deliberate reunion plan. The door opens Dan wakes again in 2001 and waits for Ricky at Riverside. When she awakens, the two marry and build a life together. The door into summer is no longer an escape from the world but the future Dan and Ricky choose together.

3 December 1970, in Los Angeles

3 December 1970, after the examination

4 December 1970 to December 2000

December 2000 through early 2001

May 2001 and the following years